The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration, and Fiction
Paperback
- Price:
- $49.95/£40.00
- ISBN:
- Published:
- Oct 9, 1994
- Copyright:
- 1992
- Pages:
- 247
- Size:
- 5 x 8 in.
- Main_subject:
- Ancient World
ebook
For the Greeks and Romans the earth’s farthest perimeter was a realm radically different from what they perceived as central and human. The alien qualities of these “edges of the earth” became the basis of a literary tradition that endured throughout antiquity and into the Renaissance, despite the growing challenges of emerging scientific perspectives. Here James Romm surveys this tradition, revealing that the Greeks, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Romans, saw geography not as a branch of physical science but as an important literary genre.